Moonlight
by Oceantail
Summary: I began to watch the sunset. Within a short amount of time the sky surrounding the sun was blood red, lines of orange invading it as it was surrounded by the pink and light blue, some yellows mixed between. I admired the sight, I rarely spent the time to watch the sun set or rise. It made the water beautiful and shimmering as well. Slight AceXOC
1. Chapter One

**Moonlight**

**Disclaimer-**I do not own One Piece

Enjoy The Story!

* * *

**Chapter One-Stowaway**

Sunlight dappled the ground, having been able to break through the leaves and leave it's light reflecting off the smooth grass I was to be sitting on. I happened to have been reminiscing my parents death currently.

Sure I was sad they were gone, but it's not like they had really cared for me. Yeah, they provided food and shelter, but other than that I was left alone and ignored. And on the small Island (and consequently, small village) I lived, there was no other hope for me to make even a single friend who could help me not feel so alone all the time, except for one time, but after he was captured there was nothing I could even do... Which is why I come here, to this little forest usually left alone and hummed to myself or whatever sort of wildlife that might be hanging around.

I liked to keep my emotionless mask on, but when it was hard I came here. I loved to hum, but not actually sing the words if you get what I mean, I sound pretty awful when I try to actually sing. So for now I let my mind roam free.

Suddenly a twig snapped, interrupting my song and my head tilted towards the noise. A small yet cold breeze blew through my long silver blonde hair, and a cloaked figure slowly stepped out of the trees, knowing he'd been caught.

I slowly inched away, but my back hit the tree that I had sat next to, who was this person? I was the only one who ever came out here. Not only that, he looked around my age. He definitely wasn't from here.

"Sorry, I got lost, can you point me back to the town?" The stranger asked, pretending He hadn't heard me humming to myself.

I really wanted nothing to do with this newcomer, "It's that way." I said in a monotone voice.

"Thanks." The stranger politely said and headed off, probably thinking I was a freak. Not that I cared.

Well since my parents were now officially gone, I had nowhere to stay. The villagers most likely weren't going to continue to let me stay in 'their' village. Honestly I knew they wished I had died instead of my parents. I'll have to find a ship to travel on, or live in these woods. So with more lyrics rolling around in my head, I stood up and went back to my old home to pack up what few things I had.

Walking through the forest was very calming, and luckily my house had been right next to it so I didn't have to go through the village. Up in my room I grabbed my black backpack and stuffed my clothes, which consisted of two pairs of black jeans, one pair of white shorts, a silver tank top, and a white shirt, into my bag. The only jacket I had, I was currently wearing because the weather of this island was like the weather you would feel halfway through fall, cold, but not cold enough to snow. Finally I strapped my dagger onto my left thigh and was set to go. I raided the downstairs portion of our house for any money I could find and then left.

I managed to sneak down to the small port this town owned without being seen and found myself lucky, there was a supply ship scheduled to leave today. My only problem was I had to somehow get past the people who were loading the ship.

There was one thing I could do, but I had never tried this before. I haven't mentioned this, but my parents love to read so our house was literally full of books of all kinds, and with all the time I had on my hands, I managed to read a lot of them. If I remembered correctly, there was a certain book teaching me about the pressure points of humans.

So, when I saw the captain of the ship had gone into his quarters, I snuck up behind a worker that was on the dock, and going unnoticed, I sent him into unconsciousness. The other two workers on board seemingly hadn't noticed their crew mate falling face first onto the wood dock somehow.

I slipped on board when the two idiots turned to admire the crystal ocean today, and not wanting to cause more trouble, I climbed below deck silently into a storage room full of crates and hid in the very back in a small gap between towering crates and thanked my small form that was able to squeeze between.

And somehow as I felt the calming waves of the ocean rocking the still docked boat back and forth, maybe it was just me being an idiot like those workers, or maybe it was because I hadn't slept in the last two and a half days, I fell soundly asleep.

* * *

I was awoken from my nap by the sound of shuffling feet somewhere close to me, and I quickly held my breath. I had no clue if they were coming towards me or not. All of the sudden the noise stopped, but it's not like the person who was moving around had left. I heard a loud yawn.

Had there been someone else down here sleeping as well? Confused questions ran through my mind, as the person began to walk, and it sounded like they were getting closer to my hiding spot. My mouth opened in surprise, letting out an inaudible gasp when the black cloaked figure I had met earlier walked by me, but he must've seen a flash of my blonde hair as they'd walked by and they quickly whipped back around and stared at me. I had my knees pulled up against my chest to take up as little space as possible, I think I had confused him.

I gave a small wave and whispered a single question, "Stowaway?"

The guy only nodded dumbly at me, I almost wanted to laugh at the coincidence that was befalling us. But I still felt I couldn't trust him, after all I hadn't even seen his face once, it had always been covered by the hood of his cloak. Although, he probably felt he couldn't trust this small, dressed in black, but has bright blonde hair girl.

It began to get really awkward, it's not like either of us could just pretend we hadn't seen each other. It was either a curse or a blessing when the workers of the ship heavily walked across the deck above us and opened the trapdoor to the storage room we were in, leaving the stranger diving into a gap across from me. Thankfully it had seemed the idiots hadn't seen him, and began to unload the ship, *How long have I been sleeping?* I wonderingly thought, but then something dawned on me.

Sure I had had a plan for getting on this ship, but how was I supposed to get off?

Harsh sunlight was filtering into the storage room through the opening, but it didn't quite reach the back where I was. Maybe I'll just let the stranger attract the attention while I make a silent escape. I glanced over at the guy and saw he was probably thinking along the same lines as me, but with me as the bait instead. *Shimata, what am I gonna do...* was my only thought.

The workers were slowly but surely unloading this room and it would only be a matter of time until they found me. So, using the only reasonable ideas littering my mind I formulated a plan for myself, who cares about the stranger honestly.

I rehearsed the plan one last time in my mind as the workers came into the room once more, and when they left, I bolted. Halting at the exit, I made sure the people had their backs to me and climbed out. Luck was not on my side, as the people heard me scrambling, however it was too late to stop my plan as I dived into the water and swam to the island, thankful those useless parents of mine at least taught me how to swim. I could hear the cries of "Catch her!" behind me fade into commands, "Go see if we have any other stowaways down there!" and I smirked ever so slightly at the unfortunate stranger's poor luck. I reached the beach and pulled myself out, sopping wet, but my backpack was waterproof so I at least had dry clothes to change into.

I turned around to get one last look at the ship I had snuck on to see if the stranger had escaped, but to my surprise it was now covered in flames.

I couldn't help but feel a little bad.

* * *

The island I had been brought to was a extremely large, long island full of modern cities, the exact opposite of my home island. It was also very hot so I was thankful there were so many clothes shops. I was planning on staying here on the island for a couple days at the least so I needed some more summer clothes, and maybe a bigger bag. Most of the clothes shops however just displayed frilly dresses, things I would never wear.

Finally I spotted a small clothes shop with some decent clothes. I veered off the Side of the street and opened the shop's door, making a little bell jingle.

"Welcome!" A woman's voice came from the right of me. I looked over to see the owner (most likely) behind the counter, she had short, straight dark red hair and was wearing a crop top with skinny black jeans.

I nodded at her and wandered around the store, feeling awkward but not showing it. I inspected a crop shirt myself, liking the pattern. It was black and littered with a white snowflake pattern and was loose and flow-y. I picked that out and then grabbed two more pairs of shorts, then walked over to the woman. As she was cashing up the things for me I remembered something, "Do you happen to sell bags, like a duffel bag or something?" I quietly asked.

"Actually-" She said and went back into a room behind the counter and came out with a silver duffel bag, my favorite color. However if my eyes didn't deceive me, I could've sworn I'd seen her frantically stuffing something inside of one of the pockets in it when she was back in the storage room, but I shrugged it off. "I do happen t' have one." She smiled at me.

Once again I nodded and she frowned at my lack of emotion. "Hey, why're you so against showin' your emotions?" She asked, and I realized she had a bit of an accent.

I stare at her a second before replying, "This is how I've always been." and ended with a shrug.

He frown became deeper as she inspected me closer, I almost felt like she saw my problematic right eye before she said, "You should try 'avin some fun. I 'appen to know a bar that's havin' a big party t'night." She said, a slight grin spreading across her face, "I could make ya all pretty."

I dropped the money I owed her on the counter and grabbed my new items and began to head for the exit, but quicker than light, the woman appeared in front of me, "I may not know how t' use it, but don't underestimate someone who's eaten a devil fruit." She said fully smiling again, pulling out a dress she was holding behind her. It was silver and tight around the top part, but then splayed out and ended around the knees. A white sash was tied around the center, separating the tight part from the flowing part. "No way am I wearing that." I blatantly stated.

"No escapn' now!" The lady chuckled.

As much as I hated to admit it, I was weaker than I thought and she had forced me into the dress. I hated it.

Somewhere along the way I'd learned the woman's name to be Hikari, and had grudgingly told her mine as well.

"All right, Luna, you look pretty." She said backing away from me after finishing curling my long blonde hair. She admired her work.

"I'm not going anywhere in this." I felt utterly ridiculous, why would people wear these kind of outfits?

Before I had even realized what was happening, I felt Hikari clip on a pair of handcuffs to my wrists, making them stuck behind my back, and thus she dragged me out of her shop. "By the way the dress costs 20,000 Beri." She said as we walked (Well me more like dragged) into the streets, the moonlight shining down onto my slim figure.


	2. Chapter Two

**Moonlight**

**A/N:Hope you like the story so far :3**

* * *

**Chapter Two-Ace**

I was struggling to get those stupid handcuffs off when Hikari pulled me into possibly the noisiest bar ever, but then again I've never really been to bars.

She Unclipped the handcuffs and proceeded to continue to drag me over to the actual bar part where they were serving beer to people like crazy.

Somehow before I had realized it there was a drink in front of me and Hikari was chugging down hers. I gingerly sipped the very alcoholic drink and began to wonder how I'd gotten into this situation. *Shouldn't have gone into a less popular clothes shop, now I don't even have any witnesses to my kidnapping* I mentally sighed. I really despised parties like this, too bright and noisy, it was giving me a headache. Hikari was still drinking drink after drink, a slight shade of red spreading across her face. "I'm going outside real quick." I said to no one in particular considering Hikari was no longer paying attention to me.

I did just as I said and leaned against the side of the building, trying to ignore the very loud sounds of drunk people that were inside of this building.

I was smoothing out the dress I was in when suddenly I noticed a small group of people trying to sneak up to me. I narrowed my eyes in suspicion.

"Hello Lady!" The leader called out to me as he got closer. He began to smile sadistically. Somehow because of him distracting me or I might have been a little drunk myself, a guy came around from behind me when I wasn't looking. Let's just say what happened next is the whole world went black.

* * *

I could feel myself being carried by something warm and tried shifting around, memories not really coming back to me. "Stop moving so much." The voice said, annoyed. I sighed and leaned against whatever it was, falling asleep.

* * *

Next thing I knew, I shot awake because of yet another nightmare filled sleep. I panicked, remembering what had happened last night. I seemed to be in a bed now and was wearing a soft oversized coat over the dress I had previously been wearing. *What had happened while I was out cold!* I had such a major headache right now.

I could only assume those people had knocked me out by hitting my head with something, jerks, and then brought me here, but where is here? I inspected around a little more, it seemed to be a small room with one bed, there was a window covered up with dark green curtains and fuzzy carpet on the floor, it looked kind of like a hotel room. Suddenly the door flew open and I flinched back a little as a guy with messy black hair walked into the room and stared at me.

"Who are you?" I kept my voice calm and even.

"Would it help if I did this?" He asked and took the cloak he was holding and draped it over his shoulders, then pulled up the hood.

Despite myself I gasped, "_You_ were part of the gang that kidnapped me?"

He pulled the hood down again and gave me an annoyed look, "No you idiot I was the one who saved you."

This surprised me too, *Why would a stranger save me, even of we have seen each other a few times before.* I thought. I stretched and flopped back down on the bed.

"What no, 'thank you'?" He asked.

I shrugged not that he could really see, "I still don't know who you are."

He laughed which surprised me, this guy was full of surprises. "I don't know who you are either, I could've just left you at those guys' mercy ya know. But my name is Portgas D. Ace." He laughed a little more and stayed smiling.

I felt a little uncomfortable looking at him, his emotions were so open. "My name is Luna, just Luna." I told him.

He stuck out a hand as if to imply to shake it, which I hesitantly did, but quickly retracted it when I felt how hot his hand was. This still all felt very suspicious to me. I shifted around uncomfortably and saw my duffel bag with my new clothes in it, and my old backpack on the nightstand.

"Is there a bathroom somewhere?" I asked. Ace pointed behind him to another door that probably led to the bathroom. I nodded grabbed my bags to go take a shower and change.

The warm water felt good running down my skin and cleaning my hair. As to not take long, I quickly but sadly got out and dried off then chose to wear a pair of jean shorts and a tank top. Not feeling quite comfortable enough in this outfit, I put on my black sweatshirt and just left it unzipped.

When I walked back out of the bathroom with all of my belongings now in the duffel bag, I saw Ace was sleeping on the bed. *What the heck, I wasn't in there _that_ long.*

I tried shoving him awake to ask where exactly I was but he was such a heavy sleeper. "Ch..." I muttered, was I supposed to just wait for him to wake up? Who knows how long that'll take! I threw my bag on the floor impatiently and sat down in a leather armchair in front of the bed and leaned against it and boredom stared at the wall across from me, tracing the patterns with my eyes. They soon however became heavy, yet I didn't want to fall asleep in case Ace woke up and left. Despite this I pulled my legs onto the armchair and snuggled into it slightly, wishing for the bed instead, silently falling back into sleep.

* * *

I woke up when I felt a presence before me and my eyes shot open to see Ace awake and standing right there. I jumped back slightly, startled.

"You know you never apologized for leaving me to take care of those stupid people on that supplies ship." Ace looked down on me.

"S-sorry..." I mumbled, remembering seeing the ship had caught on fire and wondering if he would survive.

Surprisingly Ace laughed and ruffled my hair, giving me a warm feeling, almost like happiness, which was an emotion so forgotten I didn't even realize it was happiness at the time. I did notice that Ace was slowly taking away my loneliness, which could count as happiness actually. For some unknown reason I wanted to stay with Ace.

* * *

Ace gave me enough time to pack up my stuff and then he motioned for me to follow him. Doing so, we checked out of the inn and headed for a restaurant, good thing too, I felt increasingly hungry. I ordered some cinnamon French Toast to have for breakfast, remembering the one time my mother had made it for my birthday. Ace on the other hand just ordered everything.

"Um, so, what exactly is this island? I couldn't check before I was kidnapped various times..." I trailed off as I sipped some water, trying to ignore my dull headache.

Ace propped his head on his hand, "Well as far as I'm concerned this island is named Nagai* Island."

"Wow they're so good at naming." I sarcastically replied as a waiter came to give us our food. The conversation then ended as we both dug in. I still wondered how Ace could eat all of that.

After we finished (surprisingly around the same time), Ace proceeded to promptly fall face first on the table, asleep. "The heck...?" I muttered as I waited for him to wake again. Which he did rather quickly. I continued to stare at him blankly.

"I have a sleeping disorder, let's go." He explained quickly and dragged me along to who knows where.

"Where are we going now?" I asked.

"Back to the harbor, I want to see if there are any good ships. I nodded my head thoughtfully as we ran, *Wait, why would he need a ship?* A thought came to mind.

"Um, why?" I hesitantly asked, to which he quickly responded.

"So I can set sail and find a pirate crew!" He laughed, never slowing down.

I probably should've been expected this, but I sighed, what better way to forget my past memories than to go on an exciting adventure? *This could be my chance.* I thought.

We arrived at the harbor shortly, and to our happiness, we were informed there was an old boat that nobody had claimed that we could have for free. It looked a little scratched up but it wasn't super tiny either, it had a small kitchen and some empty room below that could be used to sleep or store things.

"What do we do about supplies, Ace?" I asked as we both had nothing besides clothes for ourselves. Heck, we'd even spent all our remaining money on breakfast this morning, most of it had gone to his.

"Good question." He ran his hand through his hair, "We could steal some stuff." He whispered.

I looked at him, he seemed serious, "Alright, you're the captain I guess." I decided.

* * *

"Hey! You lousy kids, get back here!" A store merchant screamed at us as me and Ace ran through the streets of Nagai Island's capital city towards the harbor, our arms full of supplies. Ace was laughing his head off, "Catch us if you can!"

I rolled my eyes, he was enjoying this way too much. As we turned one last final sharp turn, we had managed to shake off the angry man and reached the harbor, still that didn't stop us from running onto our new (or actually rather it was old) ship, cutting the rope that tied it to the dock and setting off.

We had stolen supplies from a few other places as well and hopefully had enough to last until we could make some more money. I flopped down and let the breeze cool me, I was tired from all the running we had been doing that day.

With nothing else left to do, I pulled out my dagger that had always been strapped to my leg and admired is as I began to clean it. It had pristine clear diamonds set on the hilt and a silver swirling pattern that went up the sides onto the actual blade itself, which was golden. It had been a gift from my friend a long time ago, the one who had been kidnapped.

"Hey Luna, what're ya doing?" Ace asked as he sat down on the opposite side of the boat, the sky blue water that shimmered behind him almost made it look the a painting. "Just cleaning my dagger." I said, looking away from him before I became mesmerized.

"It's pretty," He nodded at it, before turning away to admire the ocean like I had a second before. We sat in a comfortable silence for awhile, I'd almost thought Ace had fallen asleep, before he suddenly said, "I set up a few cots in one of the rooms below, for if you wanted to sleep anytime soon."

I was almost confused until I noticed that the sky was indeed turning light shades of pinks and oranges as the sun set on the horizon, the day had passed much faster than I had imagined.

"Okay, I think I will soon." I answered as I began to watch the sunset. Within a short amount of time the sky surrounding the sun was blood red, lines of orange invading it as it was surrounded by the pink and light blue, some yellows mixed between. I admired the sight, I rarely spent the time to watch the sun set or rise. It made the water beautiful and shimmering as well, golden waves lapped against our boat. Too soon it was over and the sky was navy blue, stars trying to show themselves. I sighed and headed downstairs, which was a dimly lit hallway with three doors that branched off of it. I opened the first one, and to my luck it was the room with the cots to sleep on, I set my bags down next to one in the corner and sat down, a wave of tiredness quickly rushed over me and I let myself be lulled to sleep, despite the fact I hadn't gotten the chance to change into something more comfortable for sleeping.

* * *

_I was panting heavily as I ran through my old home, coming to a halt as I reached the living room. "Mom!" I yelled frantically, but it was too no avail, it seemed my parents weren't home currently. *That's right, they went on a trip, leaving me to these guys' mercy.* I thought bitterly. Not that they'd known about these guys, or would've cared if they did. _

_These people had just shown up at my island, quietly and stealthily, they had snatched away Tokiya, and me as well. I had watched right in front of my eyes as my best friend was tortured to death, for fun. They had let me escape, laughing, saying they'd come back for me, it was only a matter of time and "Better hide, little girl!" Their words still rung in my ears._

_So here I was, in my house, desperately searching for the protection that wasn't here. I slumped to my knees when I realized that I was going to die, and nobody would care. *Was this the reason I was born?* I thought as tears streamed down my face, staining my new dress, even though I hated the thing. Stupid frilly pink polka dots and all, I was never into that girly stuff. _

_I began to laugh a little, like a crazy person I might add. I was about to die and this is what I thought about? Ha._

_It was beginning to get dark out as well, I could hear thunder rumbling I the distance as I looked down at my dress again. It was splattered with blood that had come from Tokiya during his torture session with those insane people. I curled into a ball as an intense storm hit our island, rain pouring down crazily with grape sized hail. I felt slightly glad I was inside._

_I snapped back to reality as I heard the floorboards creak, it could've been only one thing. Rather than thing actually it was definitely a person, one out to get me. How they'd managed to find me so fast was beyond me. This was my last thought as a hand curled around my neck and covered my mouth, and the world went dark._

* * *

"-na, Luna!" A voice shouted, startling me awake, I sat up, panting and sweating a little too.

"Luna what's wrong, I heard you screaming." Ace looked me dead in the eye. Tears pricked the corners of my eyes as he did this and I wiped them away, "It was just a nightmare..." I mumbled, still shivering slightly.

Ace sat beside me and wrapped his arms around my shoulders, bringing me closer to him and warming me up, which effectively made me feel better. "Th-thanks Ace..." I said as I calmed down again, feeling embarrassed by my outburst of emotion. I rarely showed half of that to anyone.

He began to move away again but I halted him, "Wait, ...can you stay like that until I fall asleep again?" I shyly asked, still feeling the after effects of a nightmare, terror.

"Alright." He drowsily said, shifting so that we were both lying down in the small cot, we both fell asleep rather quickly.

* * *

**A/N: *Nagai=Long**


	3. Chapter Three

**Moonlight  
**

**A/N: I remembered Ace hadn't told Luna about his Devil Fruit power yet, so I tried to do a scene for that, sorry if it isn't the best :/ but it helps with the scene after that a little I guess. Btw thanks to the people who followed/favorited this story, I hope you like this chapter.**

* * *

**Chapter Three-The Water Island**

After a few days of sailing we were nearing the next island, according to information we found, it was pretty much like the last island, only it could only hold one large town, rather than a few.

I stood up from my position on the deck and headed for the kitchen to make myself something to eat. I stepped in to see Ace, with his arm on fire.

"Ace? Your arm is on fire." I pointed out, trying to read his perfectly calm face, his eyes snapped up to mine, giving me a weird look.

"Oh! Did I never tell you? I ate a Devil's Fruit, the Mera Mera no Mi?" He said.

I should've figured, "Okay, well I'm going downstairs then," I said, backing out of the kitchen, he was probably busy training or something.

I walked back downstairs, momentarily forgetting my hunger. Suddenly something that had been in the back of my mind until now had resurfaced. I looked over at my duffel bag. *What had that woman put in one of the pockets?* I slapped my forehead, I can't believe I had already forgotten about that crazy person. I pulled the duffel bag onto my lap as I sat on my cot and thoroughly investigated it.

I came up with something surprising. A grey fruit that was glistening in the candlelight, and, by the way it smelled, well, not the greatest, I knew it was a Devil's Fruit. I had read about them, the book had said that they were strange colors, had patterns, and taste terrible. It even had a strange aura it seemed to emit that practically screamed that this was no normal fruit.

What confused me the most is, why had that woman, Hikari, put this in my bag? To poison me? I shook my head and ran upstairs with the fruit in one hand.

"Ace!" I called, he quickly came out of the kitchen.

"Look, I found this in my bag, what do you think I should do with it?" I walked up to him.

"Is that a Devil's Fruit?" He asked, inspecting it.

I nodded.

Suddenly, a wide grin spread on his face, "You should eat it."

I gaped at him, was he even considering the consequences? "Devil Fruit users can't swim right? What if one of us fell off the ship? And what if it's poisoned?"

"That's why we'll get some people to join us who can swim, and it probably isn't. Come on, I want to know what it does now." He replied easily.

I looked at him hesitantly, and brought the fruit closer to my face, it was sparkling even more in the sunlight.

"I swear, if this gives me some sort of useless power I'm going to kill him..." I muttered under my breath.

Doing what Ace said, I took a bite out of it and almost gagged, it was definitely the worst thing I've ever tasted. I swallowed the bite quickly as I wondered where Devil Fruits ranked on the list of worst tasting things in the world.

"What does it do?" Ace pestered.

"I don't know!" I shouted, how did he expect me to know so quickly?

"Right, I guess it takes awhile to kick in, tell me when you figure it out," Ace waved as he went back into the kitchen.

I sighed, hopefully I wouldn't regret this.

* * *

An island appeared within sight, after I sat out on the deck for an hour, I jumped up and peered at it, seeing a few tall buildings rising into the air. Hopefully we could find someone here who could swim.

"Ace, I can see the island." I said to Ace who had been sleeping on the deck.

"Wha- did you figure out what Devil Fruit you ate?" Ace replied, half awake.

"Yes," I curtly replied, "But I'm not showing you yet."

Ace sighed, I probably sounded childish, but I didn't want to show him yet, I couldn't quite, use it to it's maximum yet, I guess you would say, and it looked weird like that. I was going to practice it on the island.

We neared the island and easily found a place to dock our boat. The first thing I noticed about the island was all the water. Seriously, the streets were made out of water. Each building was practically surrounded by it's own little pond. Plus it all smelled like salt water.

We could definitely see lots of kids swimming, enjoying the cool water on a hot day, I felt a little jealous too.

Ace led the way as we walked down the side of the water street. We had no idea where we were going. As we followed the path, it led us directly to a large lake in the center of the town, but the water was kind of an ugly gray color. However, we could still see quite a few people swimming in it, but they were all teenagers or adults, no kids.

"What do you think is up with swimming here?" I asked Ace.

He shrugged, "We aren't gonna have any problems getting a swimmer to join us at least."

Right after he said that, two people stepped out of the water right in front of us. They were obviously twins.

The girl had shoulder length midnight blue hair and was wearing a black swimsuit, she had a couple piercings in each ear as well. The guy had spiky midnight blue hair and was wearing a black swimsuit also. They both grabbed a towel and dried off their hair. Their movements seemed to be very alike.

"Hello." The girl waved at us, just now seeming to notice us.

Ace waved back, "Hi, we were wondering about information of this island? We just arrived here."

The girl smiled, "Really, we hardly receive any visitors anymore."

The guy continued on from her sentence this time, "This is Sui Tengoku* island, I'm Masa, and that's my twin sister Mizuko. If you haven't noticed-"

The girl butted in, "This is an island where we specialize in swimming, but-" She lowered her voice at this but, but was interrupted by her sibling.

"We can also fight too, and we've been dying to get out of this place." Masa finished in a quiet voice.

I looked over at Ace, these people gave a lot of information to complete strangers, they seemed somewhat suspicious. He just smiled and asked if there was anywhere to eat.

I looked off into the distance, "I'm going to go somewhere real quickly, Ace." I vaguely said before walking off towards a certain abandoned building rising into the air I spotted at the edge of town.

I could hear Ace protesting behind me, but eventually went off with the twins.

* * *

I breathed in the musty air, and wiped some dust off an old windowsill. *This is the perfect place.* I thought to myself.

I was just about to practice my new power when suddenly a dark feathered bird came swooping out of the shadows and attacked me. I covered my head as it attempted to peck at me. "What's your problem?" I muttered, trying to shoo it away.

Of course something weird had to happen in this situation, the bird, from what I could now see was a Raven, started talking to me. "This is where I live, get out."

I stood still for a second, my jaw dropping, "What the hell, why're you talking."

The bird stopped attacking me as well and perched on my shoulder, "What the hell, why can you understand me."

I pinched myself to make sure I wasn't dreaming, definitely not.

A few thoughts ran through my mind, *I could be hallucinating, or does this possibly have anything to do with my new ability?* I took in a deep breath, and began to transform.

The fruit I had eaten was from my guess, a Zoan type. And it was considerably hard to transform, I could only do it halfway, which is why I have to practice more.

I stretched out my arms as the molded into dark, black-feathered wings, which startled the Raven off it's perch on my shoulder. "What the- but you're a _human_ right?!" He cried.

I looked over at him, "Do you have a name?" I asked the bird, moving my 'wings' to my sides.

"Yes, My friends call me Flash, but-"

I interrupted him there, "Alright, I'm Luna and," I lowered my voice here because while this part was a little unnecessary, I couldn't lie, "I really came up with this name on my own, but," I raised my voice again and talked a little slower, "I ate a Devil's Fruit called the Tori Tori no Mi**: Model Raven."

* * *

Ace meanwhile was sitting in a small cafe with Masa and Mizuko. He was craving a big meal after all those rationed ones on the ship, hopefully the twins wouldn't mind paying for him, he was still broke.

"So, Ace, you're aspiring to become a famous pirate or something?" Mizuko asked.

Ace nodded as various plates of food were set before them, "Yes, Luna is the only one on my crew so far," He began to eat and a thought came to mind *Though I haven't properly asked her to join my crew have I?* he mentally shook the thought off for now, "She just ate a Devil Fruit she found and won't show it to me yet, but we were looking for people who could swim and fight. I guess it's a good thing we ended up on this island, most people seem to like swimming here." Ace said.

Masa and Mizuko shared a look, "Yeah this island is full of people who dream to become professional swimmers, even though they wouldn't make money off a job like that, or really find a job like that anyways." Masa explained.

"Of course we dream of that too, but just knowing how to swim isn't very practical, which is why our father taught us how to fight, he was a marine himself, but died awhile ago..." Mizuko trailed off.

Ace studied them, "You said earlier this island didn't receive many visitors, why is that?"

Mizuko opened her mouth to answer, but Masa beat her to it, "The water is actually poisonous to anyone who hasn't lived here their whole life and gotten used to it, many people call it a cursed island and avoid it."

Ace was interested in this fact, "Do you know why it's poisonous? And can you swim in other water besides the water here?" He asked.

"We have no idea why and-"

"Yes we can." Mizuko finished.

Ace nodded again, and asked one last question he had, "What can you two fight with?"

Masa leaned back in his chair and put his arms behind his head, stuffed. "We fight with scythes." Was his reply.

Ace pondered their answers for a bit while he ate more, *They seem pretty strong, but then again I haven't actually seen them fight yet, or swim either, but I doubt on an island like this they'd be bad swimmers.* Ace sighed and copied Masa's movements, resting his arms behind his head, leaving Mizuko wondering if that was like a natural reaction for guys.

Finally Ace broke the silence, "Alright I want to see how you fight."

"Wait, we never said we wanted to go with yo-" Mizuko started.

Ace laughed a little, "But you _implied_ it by saying you wanted off this island, and I can offer that to you if you just show me how you fight."

Mizuko huffed a little and crossed her arms seeing Ace's point.

"Okay, but you'll have to come back to our house with us." Mizuko complied, looking over at her brother.

Thankfully, Ace thought, the twins dropped the money for their meal on the small table and the group of three exited the cafe, Ace never having to pay a dime.

* * *

I smiled one of my few smiles to this bird who I had become acquainted with over the last hour and a half. I had told him about myself and he had told me about him, though his stories were rather dull considering the fact he was a bird, but I wasn't going to tell him that.

While we were talking, I had been practicing transforming and could feel I was almost there. Flash had also given me a few pointers about flying. Never would've thought I was going to have a raven as a mentor.

"I think I should go find Ace soon, Flash are you going to come with me?" I asked him without emotion, but a little part in me hoped he would say yes.

"Well of course, if I don't come with you, who's going to teach you how to properly fly?" He replied. This bird seemed to be good at reading the feelings I didn't show.

I stretched as I was back in human form and felt my back pop, I sighed, feeling happy with my progress. "Alright, let's go." I said as Flash perched on my shoulder.

"By the way, who's Ace?" He asked, I had neglected to tell him about Ace yet it seemed.

"Ace is my captain, I joined his pirate crew not to long ago." I said.

"You're a pirate? Awesome, I've always wanted to travel around." Flash excitedly said.

"You aren't going to say bye to your friends?" I questioned.

"No," Flash shook his head, "They weren't really my friends anyways, just birds to talk to if I was bored."

I shrugged as I exited the building, and felt a rush of exhilaration, I still wasn't used to the new heightened sight I had received upon getting my powers as a bird.

*Now then,* I thought, *Were could Ace be?*

* * *

I hummed softly as I roamed the streets, searching for Ace and the people he had gone off with, Flash still on my shoulder.

"By the way, Luna, I was wondering. What happened to your right eye?" Flash said out of the blue.

*Ah, so he noticed.* I thought.

"Well," I started, "Like you know, the villagers of the town I lived in didn't particularly like me, although I'm not sure why. So one day when my parents were out on a vacation and I was wandering through town they ganged up on me. There was one villager in particular who hated me, the mother of my best friend, who, well, died partly because of me, anyways she hated me and tried to outdo the others by cutting me with a knife. She would've killed me, but I dodged and she got my eye instead. So now I'm blind in my right eye." I finished explaining.

I still had my eye of course, so you couldn't tell I was half blind unless you noticed it was a slight shade darker than my other blue-grey eye.

Flash I could tell was a little sad at my story, but I didn't really care for pity, so I kept on with my search.

Finally I could see the fiery boy entering a small brown house with many windows. I could make out three figures through one of those windows as I walked up the front walkway and knocked on the dark wood of the door, which was opened by a small girl, no older than eight with long black hair pulled into a braid.

"Hi." She said.

"Hello, can you let me in? I'm with the guy who just entered." I told her, and she opened the door enough to let me through.

It led me to a small hallway that branched off into a living room. A set of stairs were pushed up against the wall.

I walked into the living room where Ace, Masa, and Mizuko were sitting on cozy looking couches next to an unused fireplace.

"Luna!" Ace greeted.

I nodded and sat next to him, Flash fluttered over to him to investigate him.

Ace draped an arm across my shoulders, "This is Luna, you already met her, but she's my first mate." He smiled, I tried to shift away, but his grip on me stayed firm.

Masa and Mizuko nodded and they got back to whatever business they were discussing previously.

"So if you want us to fight each other just know that we're pretty evenly matched." Mizuko warned.

"Okay, shall we go outside then?" Ace asked, standing up, pulling me with him.

"Yeah, we'll meet you out there." Masa agreed.

Once outside, Ace immediately realized I had a new companion. "Hey, where did that bird come from?" He asked.

I rolled my eyes, "His name is Flash, I met him while I was practicing something."

"What were you practicing?" Ace prodded annoyingly.

I shrugged, leaving him with many unanswered questions as the twins came out holding identical scythes, only Masa's was a deep black while Mizuko's shined white.

Still confused as to what was happening, I watched as they got into a battle stance and faced each other.

* * *

**A/N: Alright, I'm off to finish my English project that I've been procrastinating on _way_ too long. It's technically due tomorrow, haha... I just had some ideas for a new chapter that I wanted to write so I ignored the project and wrote this. I hope you like the chapter, also, wish me good luck.**

***Water Heaven Island**

****Bird Fruit**


	4. Chapter Four

**Moonlight**

**Chapter Four-New Members**

They both ran at each other at lightning speed, scythes clashing before they jumped back. They continued to exchange blows like this until Mizuko dashed to the side of Masa, aiming her scythe for a low blow at his legs. Before her scythe came in contact with skin, Masa jumped up and did a flip, landing neatly away from Mizuko.

"_Shadow Scythe_." Masa whispered the name of his attack before he disappeared. Mizuko seemed to know exactly what would come because she dodged as Masa appeared behind her and slashed downwards, leaving only a small scratch on Mizuko.

He seemed to be using that move a lot. Mizuko on the other hand was showing her special attack. She didn't whisper like Masa but rather yelled her move, "_Sunlight Scythe_!" I smirked a little, they may look alike, but their personalities were very different.

Basically Mizuko shouted this while using her scythe to reflect the sun into her opponents eyes and slashed at him, giving him a shallow cut across his stomach.

I watched as they continued like this for almost an hour until they both were covered with cuts and panting.

The two both flopped onto the ground at the same time, basking in the sunlight and Ace smiled, "You two are pretty good." He stated.

"Was it good enough to join your pirate crew?" Masa raised in eyebrow.

Ace's grin grew wider, "Totally."

I on the other hand was baffled, *Ace invited those two to join our crew? When?*

Flash seemed to sense my confusion, he probably didn't understand what was happening yet either, after all I hadn't introduced him to anyone.

"Um, anyone care to explain?" I asked.

Ace glanced over at me, "I asked Mizuko and Masa if they wanted to be part of the crew, remember? How you said we needed people who could swim on our crew?" He said.

I nodded, I was just surprised he would pick the twins, although they were pretty good at fighting.

"So you guys want to come see our ship? Also we're kind of low on supplies and money so if you don't mind helping us restock a little..." Ace sheepishly said, running the back of his head.

Mizuko chuckled a little, "Alright, why not?"

* * *

Their house was on the outskirts of town, so after giving their mom a quick explanation by simply stating they were off to explore and would be back soon, Masa and Mizuko followed us back to the docks.

As we walked through town I noticed most people were walking around in their bathing suits. They must spend a lot of their time swimming. Masa and Mizuko had changed back into their clothes at their house.

Ace dragged some supplies onto our ship when we finally had reached the docks. Masa and Mizuko immediately took to exploring the boat, I trailed behind them a little. They inspected the kitchen and then went below deck and inspected the three rooms, the room full of cots, a small bathroom and a storage room where Ace was finishing up with the items we had bought for traveling.

"It's kind of small isn't it?" Mizuko asked. I shrugged, it wasn't a problem when there was two people.

Suddenly I felt a flutter as a certain black-feathered bird perched on my shoulder, it had seemed he had finished exploring the ship as well. I waved at the twins as I headed back onto the deck with Flash. I could hear them talking to Ace as I climbed up into the sunlight.

*Alright, I should be able to do this soon.* I thought to myself as I hopped off the ship onto the dock, nobody else was around as my arms became wings again, my feet became talons and I even shrunk down in size a little.

"Alright, Flash, I want to try flying." I told the bird, who looked at me confused.

"Are you sure that's a good idea? You haven't even completely transformed yet." He replied.

I nodded, if I couldn't fly like this then I was weak.

* * *

After Flash ran me through on the basics of it one more time on the ground, I felt more than ready to try.

We had actually moved off the docks onto a small, but hidden beach. White sand sparkled in the sunlight, and turquoise blue waves lapped at the shore. I took in a deep breath and let it out as I jumped into the air and flapped my wings, managed to keep myself floating.

I smiled in pure joy and laughed a little, "This is awesome!" I told Flash, who was flying next to me. The next thing I didn't expect to happen was black feathers sprouting out of my body, as I shrunk down in size even more, and small beak formed on my face. I had finally managed to finish the transformation.

I laughed some more as I flew up higher, above the island. Flash got caught up in my joy too and we flew in circles together and looked down at the view. We stayed like this for a while before floating back down to the ship.

Still, I wasn't sad about that, I'm pretty sure that today I had the most fun I'd ever had in my life.

* * *

Mizuko led the way as she and her brother made their way back to their house to pack up their things and tell their mom where they planned to go.

Mizuko had to admit though, she was going to miss her little sister, Katsu. She remembered when they had picked out matching charm bracelets, she always wore it for good luck now.

"Are you going to stop reminiscing?" Masa asked as they stopped in front of the house they'd lived in their whole lives.

Mizuko sighed, "Yeah I guess, but you're not? How heartless." She smirked.

Masa shrugged, "Maybe a little."

Mizuko laughed as she got back to her normal self. They made their way through their yard and into their house.

Mizuko sighed once more as they were inside the familiar entry way. "I'm going to say bye to Katsu, can you explain to mom. Even if she doesn't care we still have to tell her we're leaving, okay?" Mizuko said as she started to climb the stairs.

Masa gave her an exasperated look, "Fine." He said as they went their separate ways.

Mizuko stopped in front of her little sister's bedroom door. She knocked and it was slowly opened as her sister peeked out. When Katsu saw it was Mizuko, she opened it up the rest of the way. "Hi Mizu." She said.

Mizuko smiled as she entered Katsu's room. The pink paint on the walls were chipped off in some areas. One wall sported a large window and she had her pink bed pushed against it so she could look outside while she fell asleep. Mizuko knew all her sister's habits.

Mizuko flopped down on the bed that was too small for her and her sister hopped on too. "Me and Masa are leaving." Mizuko stated simply. Katsu blinked in surprise.

"What do you mean?" She asked.

Mizuko looked over at her seriously, "We're leaving with some people we met, we're going to go explore the world as pirates. You know we've wanted to leave for a while and now we have the chance to." Mizuko explained.

She could see tears starting to well up in Katsu's eyes and leaned over to hug her. "Mom'll definitely take care of you, you're her real daughter, unlike me and Masa, so she definitely will." Mizuko whispered.

Katsu nodded, "Mm." was her only reply, she was glad her sister and brother were following their dreams.

Mizuko leaned away and smiled at Katsu, "See ya around." Mizuko said as she stood up and left the room.

"Bye, Mizu." She heard her sister whisper as she close the door fully and went off to pack her things. A single tear escaping her eye before she regained her composure.

* * *

Mizuko came downstairs as Masa was walking to the front door, "What did she say?" Mizuko asked.

"She said she didn't care, what did you expect?" Masa replied.

Mizuko shrugged, she was a little disappointed, but she was ready to leave. She had packed her's and Masa's bags while she was upstairs and just needed to put her shoes back on. "Let's go." She said, opening the door and handing Masa's bag to him.

He pulled it onto his shoulders and the two were back in the streets.

As they walked back to the docks one last time they could hear various yelling.

Mizuko looked at Masa, "What do you think is happening?"

Masa shrugged, whatever it was, it didn't sound good. They turned the corner just in time to see a large group of marines, about 50 or so, poised with weapons of all sorts, including swords and guns. What seemed to be the leader standing at the front of the group was yelling, "Everyone surrender! We were sent here to take care of this cursed island!"

* * *

I stood on the docks as I watched the marines that had decided to invade. Ace came up behind me, "They sure are getting cocky, sending such a small group to wipe out a full island of people." He observed.

"They seem to be making good progress to me." I said as they were barging into homes and buildings, forcing people out. The streets were overrun with panicking citizens. "Should we help them?" I asked right as I saw Masa and Mizuko running at us.

I was about to ask where they had been until they ran straight past us on to the ship, coming out with their scythes. They seemed intent to get rid of those marines, of course this probably was their hometown so I could see why.

"I guess that's a yes." Ace said, answering my previous question. He ran after the twins, his arms becoming fire.

I looked at Flash, and jumped into the air as my arms became wings. I gracefully flew up high, then spun back down and kicked a marine straight in the face, Flash laughed a little bit.

I could see the twins taking out the marines fast with their scythe attacks and Ace was easily wiping them out with his ability. I got the feeling I wasn't really needed, so I shrunk down into my raven form and lazily searched for any stragglers, any of the marines trying to escape. Luckily I caught one right as he was trying to kill a citizen, I flew by him quickly and slit his throat with my talons and jumped back to the ground in human form, Flash landing on my shoulder.

I helped the citizen up and sent them on their way and turned back to the fight to see the marines had been wiped out.

Except for their leader, who seemed to be battling Ace at the moment. The marine swung his sword aimlessly as Ace pummeled him with his fists made of fire, it really was a one-sided battle.

Suddenly, I heard the sound of a gunshot, too late, I felt pain prick my arm. It seemed a bullet had grazed it. I turned around to glare at a standing marine who had aimed for me. It looked like he was already pretty injured, probably the work of the twins.

I quickly ran at him, avoiding another bullet he'd shot and punched him in the gut, he doubled over and then collapsed.

I examined my arm, the wound was pretty deep, thankfully the bullet hadn't hit somewhere else that could've killed me. I grabbed on to my arm to stop the bleeding as I walked over to where Ace had finished up and Mizuko and Masa had gathered.

"That was surprisingly easy." Mizuko said.

"They probably only sent weaker marines because they weren't expected people outside the island to help the citizens." Ace observed.

"We should get going soon." Masa said.

Ace nodded.

"Alright let's get on the boat then, we have all the supplies we need for now, right?" He asked.

Mizuko nodded her head as the four of us climbed aboard and we prepared to set off.

I leaned against the railing and stared at the ocean as we floated away from the island, everyone else had gone below deck. However, I quickly saw bad news as there were black storm clouds heading straight for us, I could already feel strong waves lightly pushing at our boat. "Ace!" I called, startled to find him right behind me.

"There's a storm coming." He noticed, and I nodded, before a particularly large wave crashed into our boat, harshly rocking it. I stumbled a little before realizing I was falling backwards off the railing. Surprised, I said nothing as I felt the sensation of falling, and right towards the ocean as well.

* * *

**A/N: Cliffhanger because I felt too lazy to keep writing and figured the chapter should be long enough. Thanks to anyone who's reading my story :)**


	5. Chapter Five

**Moonlight**

**Chapter Five-Wiped Out**

I gasped slightly as I felt Ace grab on to my arm that had been injured and yank me forward. It may have kept me from falling thankfully, but it still hurt.

Snapping out of my daze I realized I was pressed up against Ace, he felt warm. "Thank you." I said, sighing, and tensed a little when Ace hugged me. "Be a little more careful." He said as he pushed me away again right as Masa and Mizuko came out on to the deck.

"What the heck was that? What's happening up here?" Masa asked, referring to the storm that was almost upon us.

Ace waved at the clouds, "There's a bad storm coming this way, I think we should probably roll up the sails and head below deck."

"I'm going to head down first, to take care of my wound." I said, and left the three to take care of the rest.

I found some bandages in the storage room and hastily wrapped my arm, the bleeding wasn't as bad anymore, I would have to see later if anyone on this boat knew a little first aid. Flash inspected my sloppy job at taking care of the wound, "Are you sure it won't get infected or something?" He asked, and I shrugged.

"Do you have any suggestions?" I said sarcastically.

Flash snorted, "Well no, but..."

"That's what I thought." I said as I headed for the room we all slept in.

"Hey, why do you think Ace hugged you earlier?" Flash asked, reminding me that he was there when I almost fell into the ocean and drowned. The drop wasn't that big so I probably wouldn't have had time to transform into a raven to save myself before I had hit the water, and suddenly I felt more grateful that Ace had saved me.

"Wouldn't you have been worried if your friend almost died, Flash? I don't think that a hug really meant anything." I replied, not dwelling on it unlike a certain bird brain, literally.

I could still feel violent waves rocking the boat, and knew the storm was only going to get worse from here, it hadn't even started to rain yet.

Suddenly Mizuko rushed in, "It's raining really bad up there," she started, *and there it is.* I thought. "It even started hailing! I thought I was going to be pelted to death!" She giggling, and I could see she was completely drenched.

"Where's Ace and Masa?" I asked.

"They're just finishing up with the sails." She replied and sat down on her cot.

"Hey so Ace told us you ate a Devil Fruit recently, what fruit was it?" Mizuko asked, trying to break the awkward silence that surrounded the room, other than the sound of hail hitting the deck above.

I stood up ad pulled my hair out of the ponytail I had kept it in all day and shook it out, my hair reaching mid-back now. It grew really slowly.

Without saying anything, I felt myself transforming again, and Mizuko smile as she saw I had shrunk down into a raven. Flash was standing next to me now.

"I see why you have that pet raven now." She laughed and I stretched out my wings and flew around the room a bit before standing back on the floor and transforming into a human again.

"That's a cool power, you could like, spy on people and I bet flying is awesome." Mizuko said.

I nodded, "It is." I agreed.

I jumped a little when Ace and Masa barged into the room the same way Mizuko did, just as drenched, but they seemed to be a little more urgent.

"There's a giant wave heading towards us that could probably swallow us whole!" Ace announced, and suddenly I saw the reason for their panicking.

"Shit," Mizuko muttered, voicing my exact thoughts, "What do we do?!" She exclaimed.

Ace shook his head, "Just hope for the best." He said, that was the last thing I remembered before the wave hit us.

* * *

I groggily sat up, *That's strange, I don't remember falling asleep.* I thought to myself as I felt grains of sand shifting beneath me as I moved around.

I looked at my surroundings. It seemed I was on an island, the second thought to come to my mind was, *Is it just me, or all the islands in the West Blue really close to each other?*

My clothes felt stiff, and smelled like seawater. I could only assume at some point I had ended up in the sea and then deposited here and was dried off by the blinding and bright sun.

*But what happened exactly, and where is everyone?* I thought as I stood up, and instantly my mind was spinning, I felt dizzy, like I had been lying down for too long.

I quickly walked over to a tree and leaned against it for support. It looked like if you exited this small beach it would lead you into a forest with lush green grass, much like the one at my home island.

I suddenly realized Flash wasn't with me either. I felt too tired to use my Devil Fruit powers so I began to walk in search of my friends or any sort of life.

The forest became thicker the farther in I walked, and soon all the sunlight was blocked off by the thick canopy of leaves above, I was having a hard time getting through all the undergrowth too.

"Ace? Flash? Mizuko? Masa?!" I called out, beginning to get impatient, I just wanted to lean against a tree and fall asleep, but I was also hungry and thirsty. So far my idea of the island was 'Completely Deserted'.

I took off my stiff black jacket because the weather on this island was warm, and I was starting to sweat a little.

I leaned against another tree and listened to the sounds of birds calling and leaves rustling, when I picked up on a sound that didn't belong to the ones of nature. It sounded like someone crashing through all the undergrowth, like I had been doing previously.

I perked up a little bit, "Ace, Mizuko, Masa? Is that you guys?" I called out as the crashing sound came closer.

I couldn't describe my luck in words when I saw Masa step out into the clearing I had stopped in.

"Luna?" Masa asked.

"Where the heck are we?" Was my first question.

Masa shook his head, he probably had as much of an idea as I did, even of his home island was supposedly not that far away from here.

"Have you seen anyone else?" Masa asked.

I quickly replied, "No, I just woke up not too shortly ago on a small beach."

Suddenly, I could hear the sound of something moving through the buses again, and I perked up, listening closely. Hoping to find another one of our friends, when the last thing I expected to happen, happened. A pack of wolves jumped out and snarled at us.

"What the hell!" I shouted, "Isn't this some sort of spring or summer island? I thought wolves live in colder weather areas?!"

I got into a defensive position next to Masa who was cursing under his breath as well, and reached for the dagger I always had that was thankfully still strapped to my leg, and pulled it out, preparing for a fight, even though I still felt dead tired.

"What's up with this island..." Masa muttered, and I noticed he didn't have his scythe with him.

"Well, we're screwed..." I voiced my last opinion as the wolves charged at us and we were thrown into battle.

* * *

I managed to take out a few wolves with my dagger, which was now bloodied, but not without getting wounded in the process. Also, there was still about ten more wolves circling me and Masa.

Masa was attempting to take them out with his fists, but the wolves were pure muscle and outnumbered us by a lot. The fact that I had killed a few of their pack seemed to anger them even more.

I wiped off some blood that was dripping into my eye as I sensed a wolf coming at me from my right side, I swung around and aimed the dagger at it, managing to stab it in the face. It cried out in pain and staggered back.

By now me and Masa were both breathing heavily, I was guessing he hadn't eaten or drunk anything for awhile too.

"Masa, got any good plans?" I asked as we stood back to back, neither of us really fending off the attacks as we gained more wounds.

He was feeling the hopelessness of the situation too as he said, "This would be much easier if we weren't half-starved."

I yelped a little when a wolf managed to claw were my arm had been grazed by a bullet previously, and I really began to wish Ace was here.

Me and Masa were soon backed up against a tree and an idea came to mind. "Masa, do you think you still feel strong enough to use your arms?" I asked.

Masa never took his eyes off the wolves approaching us threateningly and slowly, ready to take their prey, "Yeah, why?" He asked.

I took in a breath preparing to ignore the pain in my arm, "Follow my lead!" I called as I jumped as high as I could and grabbed the tree, quickly shimmying up the trunk, thankfully Masa got the idea quickly and started climbing as the wolves pounced were we had been standing a few seconds ago.

The stupid wolves made no move to climb up the tree after us, like it was too much effort for them. So they sat and waited. I climbed as high as I thought I could without the branches breaking under my weight and rested against the trunk. I watched as the wolves got up and left after not too long, probably off in search of easier prey, and gave myself a chance to relax.

Masa was sitting on a branch not too far beneath mine and was attempting to get some of the blood on him off, so I did too, not making very much progress before Masa said, "Do you think that there's more packs of wild animals that don't belong here in this forest?"

I sighed, "Probably," Our luck was most likely only going to get worse from here.

"But there has to be something we could find to eat or drink around here if there are wolves living here."

My breathing became steady again, "I'm going to go up for a minute and see if I can find anyone." I told Masa.

"What-" I could tell he was about to ask what I meant, but my actions answered his question as I gathered my remaining energy and let myself transform into a raven, I flew upwards, and after a little trouble getting through the thick layer of leaves, I emerged above the forest and began to soar upwards.

I wasn't very surprised as I inspected the island. It was in the shape of almost something like a disfigured star and was completely covered by a deep forest.

I couldn't see anything through the trees so me and Masa were just going to have to wander aimlessly I suppose.

I flew back down to a tree branch close to Masa quickly as my energy was depleting.

I morphed back into a human as Masa watched, he must have not seen me during battle when I was a raven, and if Ace hadn't either then he was the only one left who didn't know what my power was yet, which was kid of ironic considering he was the one who wanted me to eat the Devil Fruit.

I shook my head, "The whole island is covered in trees, I couldn't see if Ace or Mizuko were down here."

Masa sighed, he probably wanted to get off this island to civilization just as much as I did.

While I was up there I could also see that the sun was setting too, meaning it would soon be nighttime, do I suggested we sleep, to which Masa agreed.

I wrapped my jacket around me because it was getting colder and tried to position myself as comfortably as one could when one was sitting on a tree branch. I rubbed my eyes tiredly and began to wish for some food. I also wondered how Ace was doing, if he hadn't found food either he was probably starving to death considering he could eat way more than I could.

Looking at the forest darkening around me one last time, I closed my eyes and drifted into sleep.

* * *

"Luna, wake up." Masa's voice was the first thing to come to me next morning. At first I was a little pissed when I saw it was still so early and I was still so hungry and thirsty, sleep had only distracted me for a little while, when I saw that the wolves had come back, and this time with ten more additional members.

*So it seemed I was right, our luck _did_ only get worse.* I thought. I was suddenly glad that all the trees were very close to one another because that gave me an idea for our second escape plan.

"Masa lets escape by going from tree to tree," I said, seeing that he was already thinking that as he hopped to a branch on another tree. "Split up and meet back here!" I called behind me as I went in the opposite direction for him. Normally it wouldn't seem like a good idea to split up, but the tree we had been sleeping in last night was very tall compared to the other ones and would make a good landmark for us to find each other at again later. The wolves seemed to see what we were doing and split up as well, nine after me and nine after Masa. I was praying really hard that I would be able to lose them.

As I kept swinging from tree to tree, I managed to lose a few of the wolves, whether it be because they couldn't keep up or their attention was stolen by some sort of prey unseen to me. By the time I dead ended on another small, hidden beach there was only four wolves left.

Of course by now I was completely exhausted, and had no strength left to fight the wolves, so as they began to clumsily scramble up the trees, not making very much distance because every time they climbed a foot they slipped back down half a foot, I could only sit and watch.

As they began to get closer, I climbed higher, in a desperate attempt to escape them. Soon I was near the top of the tree itself and could feel the branches creaking and sagging against my weight, it was not a fun thing to feel.

The wolves slowed there climbing too when the branches started to not support their weight fully, almost backing down, except for one wolf who seemed determined to get me. It seemed to be accustomed to climbing trees as well so it was quickly gaining on me. I climbed higher and higher until the branches were so thin I was wondering how they were even holding me.

Of course I had probably jinxed myself by thinking that as I heard a loud crack and felt myself falling straight for the ground.

* * *

**A/N: Hope you liked the chapter, also wanted to say thanks again for the people who followed/favorited the story and to Otaku-chan for the reviews :D and yeah usually I can update fast because it's still summer break for me for a couple weeks more and I have lots of free time haha. Also the reason I decided to write a little storm scene in the chapter is because this week (and last week) where I live we've been having lots of 'severe thunderstorms' as all the radio warnings put it, It hailed during the storms, even though it's summer, the weather isn't usually like this and needs to remember that it's still summer. Well, See you next chapter!**


	6. Chapter Six

**Moonlight**

**Chapter Six-Regaining Energy**

I had fallen of lots of things before, some including a boat, the roof of a house, off a small cliff. Now I could add a one hundred foot tree to the list. Not to mention the idiotic wolves were jumping off after me.

The world seemed to go in slow motion as I fell closer to the ground, I had turned over so I couldn't see it rushing towards me, just those dumb wolves.

I closed my eyes and waited for the impact with the ground, unable to grasp any of the tree branches around me. Needless to say I was startled when I landed on something soft that had broke my fall.

My eyes snapped open, *Oh, shit, did I land on someone?* it was good news for me, but not for whatever I had landed on. I realized that it wasn't a human because it was too fluffy, and looked beneath me to see a bunch ravens supporting my weight.

*The hell?*

I was more than pleased to see Flash was among them, it was actually more of a gut feeling considering they all looked the same. I laughed in pure joy and rolled over on to the grassy ground before remembering the wolves that had landed on the ground with me. They seemed to be limping a little, like they had sprained something. I took the opportunity to push myself up and stumbled ungracefully away as fast as I could, calling out to my feathery friends, "Flash! and co." I added for the heck of it, "let's get out of here!"

I still wondered how Flash had found me just in time and where he had even found those other ravens as I began to run one more time to escape the overly persistent wolves.

It wasn't too long before I could finally collapse onto the ground. Lying face down, I let myself relax. I had finally escaped the wolves and let my guard down just for now because I had Flash with me again.

"I just need to get some food and water then sleep for a reaaaally long time." I groaned into the grass.

"If you stand up, I could bring you to a small stream I found earlier." Flash told me, and I perked up a little bit. Nothing sounded better than some water right now. A sigh of exasperation escaped my lips as I stood up again. "This is the last time I'm moving." I said under my breath, Flash still managing to hear me.

"Unless you want food." He added and him and his raven friends came over to help me to the stream they had supposedly found.

It turned out they weren't lying, I saw as a glistening stream came into view. I eagerly drank up some water, slowly not to make myself sick, and proceeded to lean against a tree to take a 'small' nap. "I leave it to you if the wolves come back." I waved at Flash before being consumed by darkness.

Yep, luck was definitely not on my side today and I knew this because someone just had to come and disturb my resting.

"Oi, Luna." It was a familiar voice, and it was really annoying because I couldn't remember exactly who it belonged to, and I was completely unwilling to open my eyes and let the lights of the world pierce my vision.

"Goaway..." I mumbled and repositioned myself so I was facing away from whoever was talking to me.

I heard a short laugh before I felt them sit down next to me, I was a little annoyed at first, but they were warm, and it was lulling me back to sleep, before I realized. My eyes snapped opened, not to the point that they were wide, but rather half lidded because I was still very tired, but I wanted to confirm who was currently sitting next to me.

*Yep.* I thought as I saw a familiar orange hat that hurt my eyes.

"Ace you're alive." I stated the obvious.

"So it seems." He replied.

I sighed, wanting nothing more than to fall back asleep now. It was still daytime but I was guessing it had to be at least noon by now. I could tell because above the stream, no leaves could reach, I could see the sun lighting the sky, right in the zenith.

I looked over at Ace to see his attention was on the stream that lazily flowed by, and I quietly let out a yawn before leaning my head on his shoulder and falling asleep almost instantly, key word, almost. I was glad to find another one of my comrades were alive, now I just needed to find Mizuko. Which reminded me if Masa was doing okay, I would have to go back to our meeting place. Hopefully he didn't die. My thoughts blurred as I did, indeed fall asleep once again, and had dreams about all my favorite foods, rather than the usual nightmares.

* * *

This time I woke by my self, feeling satisfied, and starving. Probably because I could smell food cooking. I cracked an eye open to see Ace was cooking some sort of food. I also noticed a few other things, like the fact that Flash was now curled in my lap and sleeping, or how it was now dark outside and I could see stars appearing in the sky.

I eagerly looked back over at Ace, "What are you cooking?" I called.

"Fish." Was the reply. Duh, we were next to a stream after all and there might've been some fish. At least that was my guess to where he had found fish.

I carefully picked Flash off my lap and cradled him in my arms as I went over to Ace and sat next to the fire that warmed me up a bit.

I watched the flames for awhile, in a trance, until I realized Ace had finished cooking the fish and was holding some out to me, which I graciously took and began to eat. I was glad I had someone here to help me get the food I needed.

We both ate in silence. When I had finished, I lazily stood up and walked over to the stream, took of my jacket once more and began to wash off some of the blood that had dried on my arms.

I would wash the rest of myself later.

"What happened?" Ace asked, and I jumped a little when I realized he was crouching next to me.

I began to explain the story to Ace as shortly as I could, "I met up with Masa and we were attacked by wolves, we climbed a tree to avoid them, and they left, but came back later with more wolves. So, we split up, as did the wolves. Needless to say we both got injured." I said, leaving out some details.

"Wolves?" Ace asked.

I nodded, remembering my original reaction to them.

That's when Flash woke up, and I suddenly thought of something. "Where did all your raven friends go, Flash?" I asked.

"They all left, obviously." He answered, and I realized Ace was giving me a weird look.

"Why are you talking to a raven?" He questioned.

And it dawned on me, Ace still didn't know about my Devil Fruit. I laughed a little, I found my self doing that more often than I realized lately. Ace was still looking at me like I was insane.

"Do you want to know my Devil Fruit power?" I asked him as I stood up.

Ace seemed confused as to why I was changing the subject, "Well yeah, but...?" He still wasn't putting the pieces together.

I breathed, now that I was feeling little more refreshed, I let the sensation of feathers surrounding my body take over and instinct followed as the rest of me shrunk, arms becoming wings, feet becoming talons, and so on. I was getting used to transforming more and more now.

Ace watched as I beat my wings and flew up next to him, a look of realization hit his face. "Ohhh!" He announced, a little loudly too. "You're a raven? That's so cool! That's why you can understand that Raven that's always with you?" He said, finally understanding.

"Yeah." I agreed ad landed on the ground again, loving the thrill flying always brought. Who knew someone afraid of heights would enjoy the free feeling of flying so much? Maybe I was even getting over my fear a little. Of course I remembered whilst climbing that tree in escape I had refused to look down because I knew if I had, panic would've ensued.

Before I knew it I was back in my human body again, Flash perched on my shoulder. I could see the moon reflected in the stream, meaning it was late. I looked back up at the various stars scattered everywhere in the sky. The night sky was always more beautiful than the sky in the day. I thought it was pretty amazing how the stars' light could reach our eyes from so far away. I closed my eyes, basking in the moonlight as I put my sweatshirt back on my now clean arms. It was peaceful and calm standing next to Ace, until I sensed something heading straight for us.

My eyes were opened again by the time a figure came crashing into the makeshift campsite me and Ace had made, looking as exhausted as I was earlier.

"Ace! Luna..." Masa called in relief as he fell right on his face, asleep.

* * *

Masa had quickly woken after his little episode and eagerly took some food from Ace as he began to tell what had happened.

* * *

Masa wearily stumbled from tree to tree as he had split up from Luna. He had been keeping watch while she was sleeping just in case, and now the effects where catching up to him as he attempted to escape the wolves following him.

As he leapt a particularly large gap between trees, his hands failed him and he was unable to grasp the next branch.

He knew he was done for as he fell towards the nine wolves that had easily kept up with him the whole time, and they did easily encircle him as he landed jarringly on his feet. One eager wolf attempted to jump out to him and close it's jaws around Masa's neck. But it seemed that the largest wolf of the bunch, most likely the alpha of the pack stopped him, like they needed Masa alive or something. At least that was how it appeared until they drew in closer, threateningly.

Masa tensed, forcing his weary body to not go down without a fight.

He was not expecting a flash of blue to jump down from above him, throwing him to the ground.

"Stay away you stupid wolves!" A familiar voice snarled and Masa looked up to see it was Mizuko.

"Mizuko!" He exclaimed, but she paid no heed to him as the wolves jumped and attacked. She somehow had her scythe with her and slashed at her attackers, but was quickly overwhelmed by the power of them. It also seemed Mizuko had not been spared the same starvation and lack of energy as Masa.

Everything happened in a flash as the wolves knocked out Mizuko and dragged her away, forgetting about Masa, who jumped to his feet and staggered after them, but couldn't keep up.

"What the heck!" He yelled to himself, where had Mizuko even come from, and more importantly, where the heck even was he?

"I'm not going to be able to find that stupid meeting spot." He spat, and began off to find where those wolves were headed.

* * *

"I must've strayed a little off course, and found you guys." Masa finished.

"So the wolves knocked her out, but didn't kill her?" I asked, Masa nodded.

I could only wonder why, I would've thought that they would've killed her immediately, unless they were going to later or needed her alive for some reason.

"Then let's go search for her now, before they do kill her." Ace said, standing up. Masa agreed and stood up shakily as well.

I narrowed my eyes and stared at Masa, he was clearly not in any shape to be searching for anyone right now. "How about we wait until morning?" I suggested.

Masa glared at me, "If we wait any longer they'll probably kill my sister." He said, supporting himself against a tree.

I sighed, relating with him, I felt worried for our blue haired friend as well, so I stood up last. If Masa wanted to search in his state, who was I to stop him?

So, with Ace leading the way, we crossed over the stream and began to head for the center of the island.

We walked until the sun had risen over the horizon and it was late morning. I was tired already, but we were almost at the middle, and I knew that because I was in my raven form, flying above Ace and Masa, being our scout. Even if it was impossible seeing through the thick cover of trees.

"Luna! Come back down, we found something." I heard Ace call.

I dropped down and shifted into my human self again, bracing myself against a tree as I saw Ace and Masa nearing a well hidden cave that lead underground. The opening was just big enough for a large wolf to fit through.

Ace managed to crawl in first, at the sight of an adventure and Masa quickly after him. I came in at last with Flash and stood up in a long tunnel hallway of sorts that seemed to go on forever. There was no source of light other than a few breaks in the ceiling, letting small bits of light seep through.

The two with me were already far ahead, walking down the hallway with a brisk pace and I followed, trailing my hand on the smooth rock. I was reminded of the hidden place me and Tokiya played in for awhile before it collapsed in on itself.

After walking for a long time again, I began to feel a little uncomfortable, the cave was slightly sloping downward and it was getting colder, I hated this feeling of being trapped.

I was still lagging behind Ace and Masa so when they began to ran, I wondered why until I saw some light up ahead.

Flash finally woke up from his perch on my shoulder when we entered a giant cavern that branched off into many different tunnels. The walls sported lit torches. Moss was growing on the floor.

There was no sign of Mizuko, but around fifteen wolves were sleeping soundly throughout the cave.

*Don't wake up.* I silently wished in my head, until Masa decided to yell.

"Where's Mizuko?!" Echoed around the cave.

All the wolves heads immediately snapped up and they began to growl threateningly at our group.

"Way to go..." I muttered and grabbed my dagger, preparing for _another_ fight.

Honestly, I was tired of these wolves, *Why were there so many on this island anyways?* I thought as I nicked the ear of a smaller wolf approaching me.

"Hey, what's with all the noise?" An annoyed voice came from one of the tunnels attached to the cave. Forgetting about the wolves, I turned to see the first person I had seen living on this seemingly uncivilized island.

He had dirty brown hair that was covered up by a gray hat. Strangely, one chunk of it grew down past his left ear to his collarbone. A swirly tattoo crawled up the right side of his face.

The wolves seemed to immediately react to his voice as they all ran over to him, and he stroked some of their heads, until he noticed our trio, and planted his green gaze onto us.

"Who the hell are you?" He asked.

* * *

**A/N: Nothing like some One Piece music to inspire me to write some more of this story :D also thanks Otaku-Chan that helped a lot! Well, I'm going to be gone from tomorrow until Sunday because I'm going camping so I won't be able to post any chapters, but I might have some free time to write one or two during the trip (i.e. the car ride there and back) Hope you guys have a good weekend too! Even though it's only Wednesday haha.**


	7. Chapter Seven

**Moonlight**

**Chapter Seven-The Unnamed Island?**

His introduction was a little rude, but fitting I thought, considering we were strangers intruding in on his... Home? That was my guess based on the fact he was so friendly with these wolves, which also struck another thought.

Perhaps he had been controlling them to hunt us down? His eyes betrayed a slight feeling of expectation, like he knew we would be here, but he still didn't know who we were. Which confused me all the more.

Masa might've been thinking along these lines because he asked the same thing as before, "Where is Mizuko?"

The guy snorted, "Are you talking about that blue-haired girl that my pets brought to me earlier? Why are you guys on my part of the island anyways? Couldn't you have gone to mess with Ursa? Or Corvus? Seriously..." He muttered.

"Answer the question." Masa growled.

"No _you_ answer _my_ question." The guy growled back, his wolves joining in on him.

That's when Ace suddenly disappeared and appeared behind the guy, his hand a ball of flames. He managed to capture him in his grip and held the flames close enough to his face it would probably hurt. "We need information, and you're going to give it to us, or I'll burn your face. Now first, where is Mizuko?" Ace threatened.

I could see fear flash through the guys eyes for a second before he attempted to gain his composure. "She's somewhere in these caves, obviously." He sarcastically replied, despite the situation he was in.

Ace brought the flames close enough to his face to singe his bangs peaking out from the hat he wore. He panicked now, "Alright! Alright! I can show you where she is just don't burn me, please!"

Ace scoffed and let him go. He stumbled for a second and straightened up, then he dashed down one of the many tunnels to escape, leaving his wolves as a distraction.

Which they were, it seemed like he had an endless supply of wolves to help him, so I threw out a suggestion. "Ace! You go after him, me and Masa will take care of the wolves."

Masa didn't seem to like this suggestion but I ignored his glare and watched Ace as he nodded and ran in the same direction as wolf guy. I on the other hand began to wrestle with the wolf who's ear I nicked earlier, I shifted into a hybrid form and used my talons to claw his face this time. Flying up into the air, I dive bombed another wolf and wished Ace the best of luck.

* * *

After fighting for awhile, me and Masa knocked out all the wolves who were our opponents. Not without any damage of course, Masa's leg had gotten scraped up pretty bad and one wolf had left a deep gash on my cheek that would probably leave a scar. I winced as I tried to stop the blood flow and looked over to where Masa had collapsed. I had warned him we should've waited until he was more rested to find Mizuko, it was his own fault for not listening.

I held up a piece of fabric torn from my jacket to my cheek and walked over to where Masa was and tried to prop him up by wrapping his hand around my shoulder and my hand around his. I was only able to half carry and half drag the weary body as I made my way down the tunnel Ace and wolf guy had disappeared. I hoped that things with him would've been taken care of by now.

After walking way longer than I thought the tunnel could've possibly been, I began to hear footsteps approaching from the way I was headed to.

As I began to move into the next patch of light a flickering torch I saw it was Ace coming towards me after all. He seemed to have one body hoisted onto his back and one dragging behind him over the rough surface of the cave floor.

I notice Flash was with him too, who had disappeared half way through the battle with the wolves.

Ace seemed to notice me and waved until the person on his back, who I now saw was Mizuko, began to slip. He quickly caught her again and jogged over to where I had stopped and filled me in on what had happened.

"I got information from this guy, turns out his name is Lupus. We're on an unnamed island currently, but it still has civilization. There's one village in the center of this island, which is star shaped by the way." At this I nodded my head because I already knew that. Ace continued, "Each point of the star is the territory to one person who has control over a certain animal species, for example, this is the territory of Lupus and we already know he can control wolves, but they aren't Devil Fruit users strangely. There is also Ursa, she has control over bears; Corvus, who controls ravens;" I tensed a little when he mentioned someone who had control over ravens.

"Lepus, who controls rabbits, and finally Vulpes, who controls foxes." Ace finished. I was surprised he had gotten so much information from Lupus, who was being dragged behind Ace.

I shivered a little considering how cold it was in this cave and my favorite jacket had been all torn up during the fight and I suggested we head back up to the surface, to which Ace agreed.

We began the slow journey of hauling ourselves and our two crew members, along with Lupus for some reason, back out of the cave. I had enough walking for one day.

I daydreamed about my parents a little to pass the time while we walked. I rubbed my jacket and remembered how they had given it to me for my birthday right before they died. They would always give me one random present to me on my birthday every year, it was the only day of the year they paid a little attention to me, otherwise they were focused on work or whatever. I felt slightly bad for messing up the jacket, but it was probably fixable. Probably.

When we saw the small exit nearing us, me and Ace both sped up at the same time. We shoved Masa, Mizuko, and Lupus through the small opening one at a time, Ace pushing them out from the inside and me pulling them out the rest of the way from the outside, before resting under the shade of the trees. It felt much warmer out here. I would've liked to bask in the sunlight, but it was blocked out by all the trees, so I settled with enjoying the warm breeze.

"So what next, Ace?" I asked to him, who was sitting against a tree across from me, his hands tied behind his head and his eyes closed.

He didn't answer for a minute and I thought he had fallen asleep, until both his eyes opened and he stared at the green leaves above him with an intense focus.

"We need to find out what happened to our boat." He finally said.

I hadn't thought about the boat until now, who knew what state it could be in after that storm, we were all lucky we survived. Maybe Mizuko knew something about our boat.

We had succeeded in tying up Lupus in case he tried to escape when he woke up, when a grunt came from where Masa was positioned. He sat up very suddenly and put a hand to his head, probably feeling dizzy. He looked around him and when he saw Mizuko was with us, he slumped back against the tree with a sigh of relief.

I pulled some jerky from my small backpack I had had on my shoulders since we crash landed at this island and hoped my duffel bag and the rest of my stuff was still okay on the boat.

"Hey!" I protested when Flash stole some of my jerky and flew onto a tree branch that I could only reach by climbing, and I _really_ was not in a climbing mood, so I gave up on it and let him have it.

That's when Mizuko literally jumped up from her sitting position, she seemed very startled and confused. But when she saw the rest of us she blurted, "We need to go to the village!"

* * *

I watched her as she attempted to dash off in another direction, but was stopped by Masa, who grabbed the collar of her shirt to do so.

"Why?" Ace asked.

His question was only responded with the shake of a head, "Does it really matter? You guys look like you need to go there anyways to freshen up a little." Mizuko said.

"Just look at yourself." Masa snorted, referring to Mizuko's torn up clothes.

As the duo began to argue just like normal siblings, Lupus woke up with a loud groan, and began to struggle when he realized he was in restraints.

"Why the hell was it necessary to kidnap me and bring me with you?" He growled, Ace shrugged.

"Well originally there was no point in it, but seeing that you're awake now and Mizuko is being very urgent, why don't you show us to the village?" Ace asked.

"Why should I?" He sarcastically replied.

"Well, whether you like it or not I'll still drag you around with us." Ace shrugged once more before standing up to break up the fight between the twins.

I walked over to where Lupus still sat, and ordered him to get up. He did and I pushed over to where Ace was so he couldn't escape even with all this distraction.

"There's something they know!" Mizuko's voice rang out and Masa narrowed his eyes.

"_Really_?" A mocking tone did not go unnoticed.

"Yes, '_Really_', I was there for a short while earlier and they told me they knew the whereabouts of our boat, but then they informed me that you and Luna were being attacked by wolves and they even knew where. I left before I could get more information from them, but it's like they knew everything happening on this island, and frankly, I don't see any den den mushis anywhere that could be spying on us." Mizuko explained.

Well, if they knew where our boat was then I would be willing to comply and head immediately for the village, I wanted to see if all my clothes were still okay or if I'd have to keep wearing these torn ones until we left the island.

Ace looked over at Lupus, "What do you know about this village?" He questioned.

Lupus turned away from Ace's prying stare and simply answered, "It is only my job to guard my territory and nothing more, anything the village does is not of my concern." It sounded like something he had been rehearsing repeatedly.

I could feel we were all repressing the urge to sigh, this island seemed impossibly confusing and no one was willing to give us answers.

Lupus began muttering under his breath, some sort of abstract sentence.

"What was that?" I asked, being the only one who noticed his muttering.

He sighed and spoke a little louder, "I said, the village is that way if you really need to find it." He nodded towards a random direction.

Ace smiled happily and pivoted while at the same time grabbed Lupus' wrists and began to drag him in the direction of the village, Masa and Mizuko following closely behind. I followed last, as I turned to look at the entrance to the cave once more, before I was snapped out of it by Flash who reminded me I had to keep up or I was going to be left behind.

* * *

"Are we _there_ yet?" Mizuko complained, and I could relate, we had been walking for hours and it was getting really hot out. I was about to resort to urging myself into my raven form and perching on someone's shoulder for the rest of the ride, much like how Flash sat on mine.

"It should be just up ahead." Lupus responded, obviously annoyed, considering how he was still being dragged by Ace.

He let out an apparent sigh of relief when we emerged into a somewhat large and open meadow covered with bright flowers of all kinds.

"Here we are." He exclaimed.

Ace looked around, "Um, I'm not seeing any village." He said, reading me and Masa's thoughts.

Lupus chuckled a little, "well of course, it's built underground." He began to kick at a pile of large rocks and they easily tumbled down, revealing a small tunnel that led underground.

*What is up with this island and caves?* I thought.

"Follow me." Lupus said as he began to walk down the staircase that was in the tunnel.

I embraced the cool dampness of the cave after the searing heat that we had experienced up above and I couldn't blame the villagers from wanting to have their village underground. Or maybe that was just the fact because I was from and autumn island so I wasn't used to extreme temperatures.

I noticed Mizuko walked down the stairs with a little more confidence than the rest of us. *That's right, she said she had already been here. How, I can only imagine.* I observed.

"Welcome to the unnamed village of the unnamed island." Sarcastic Lupus was back as we walked into an absolutely enormous cavern compared to any other caves I had ever been in before.

Wooden houses occupied space everywhere and some slightly larger building peaked out above them in the center of the village. Almost everywhere you looked, candles were adorned to provide the cave with the light it needed.

We were stopped by two guards most likely, who asked for us to state our name and business.

I rolled my eyes, they probably didn't get many visitors here, I couldn't see why they would need guards.

Their eyes scanned our group, but when they landed on Lupus I saw a flash of recognition pass their faces. "Oh, sorry, we didn't see you Lupus, please go ahead." They also failed to notice his hands were tied behind his back.

Still it worked out because we all were let in, and we made our way through the narrow, somewhat busy streets towards the center. As of now Mizuko was leading with Lupus too so we were probably heading towards the person she wanted to talk to.

*Alright, time to learn some more about this crazy island.* I thought.


	8. Chapter Eight

**Moonlight**

**Chapter Eight-Refusals**

The five of us slowly made our way to the center, I was hoping to be provided with a good meal, it had been awhile since the last one I had.

I watched as the taller building got closer and closer until we stood before the tallest one in the village, which, to be honest, was not very tall. A couple stories I would say at most.

"Let's go." Ace said, leading the way inside.

The wooden floor creaked a we stepped into a small room. There was an old lady reading a book sitting on a small couch. The rest of the room was lined with bookshelves completely overflowing with books. There was also two hallways leading off somewhere else in the building.

"You!" Mizuko shouted, pointed at the lady, who stood up in turn. She was actually pretty tall.

"It's rude to point." The lady said and put her book onto one of the bookshelves.

"I don't care, you know information about our boat, tell us what happened to it." Mizuko said.

The old lady smiled calmly, but I could see that was just a mask to cover up her annoyance. She probably thought she had gotten rid of Mizuko earlier.

"Why should I tell you?" She asked.

"Because... We-we need to make sure it's still okay!...?" Mizuko replied, not really able to find a reason the stranger should help them.

That's when Ace cut in, "If you refuse to tell us about our boat then tell us what's up with this island." He stated.

"I don't have to tell you stupid brats about this island, find information yourself." That's when her eyes locked onto Lupus. "Lupus, may I ask what you're doing with these pirates?" She spat out the last word.

I was considering how she knew we were pirates, figuring it was just because of our appearance or maybe Mizuko told them, as Lupus was about to reply, but again Ace butted in.

"We're holding him hostage until you give us answers." Ace replied, roughly yanking Lupus over to him to show that a pair of handcuffs bound his hands.

*Seriously, when did he change his ropes into handcuffs?* I thought.

I saw the lady's eyes widen slightly, but quickly return to normal as she gave an almost unnoticeable flick of her wrist.

My eyes narrowed, *Is she planning something?* I thought to myself. The others seemed to not notice it.

Her eyes landed on me and she flicked her wrist once more in my direction. I felt my eyes widen as I suddenly realized what she was planning.

My realization was a bit too late as I felt a piece of cloth cover my mouth and nose and the world went black.

* * *

My eyes opened to see a rocky wall across from me, or was that the ceiling? I shook my head.

I felt weak, and I notice my arms were cuffed behind my back. It must've been Kairouseki cuffs.

I sat up slowly and found I was chained to a wall, but it was loose enough that I could lie down. Obviously.

I saw prison bars in front of me. I was in a dimly lit prison cell, great.

I heard footsteps coming in my direction and a guard, dressed like the ones who greeted us at the gates, passed in front of my cell.

"Hey!" I called, the guard looking over in my direction slightly. "Where the hell am I!" I yelled.

He ignored me and hurriedly went back the way he came. I was starting to lose my composure. I really hated this island, and being in this prison cell brought back a very unpleasant feeling.

I heard the sound of footsteps once more, this time it sounded like more than one person. I growled a little when I saw the old lady stop in front of my cell along with two guards. Probably for protection, just in case.

"My, my, you look worse than you did when we met." She said, and I looked down to see I looked much thinner than I had before arriving at this island.

"How long have I been out?" I mused, my question was quickly answered.

"Three days. Your friends must be somewhat worried about you by now." She said.

I was practically gaping at her, but then I heard the part about my friends. "What did you do to my friends?" I hissed.

"Nothing, actually you should be more worried about your own well being. We dropped your friends off at their ship. We took you as a payment for the information. We also took Lupus back." The lady answered.

I growled once more, "Who takes people as payments for information?! What use do you have for me?"

This time the lady smiled, "Nothing more than entertainment. By the way I'm Julie, it's nice to meet you."

She was crazy. I had come to this conclusion after sitting in this cell for hours. I had never met an old lady like her, and what could she have met by entertainment I wonder?

I sighed, after she had left the guards delivered a small amount of food to me so I wasn't too starving. My question still remained, what could she gain by keeping me and having an extra mouth to feed?

I also observed she seemed to be in control of the guards so she may possibly be the leader of this village.

Too many questions were running through my head. It was giving me a headache. I could only wonder how Ace, Mizuko, and Masa were doing. I that lady was lying about not harming them then I would have to kill her. After all, I wouldn't want to lose another friend.

* * *

The Jail door clanged once more as Julie left. It was the next morning and she seemed to have come to my cell this morning to have a completely normal conversation with me. It was almost unsettling. She had asked about how I'd found my friends and what we had done so far. I had wearily told her my short story from when I left my hometown to now, rather than be sarcastic. The first time I had tried that, she left a good size bruise on my cheek. For an old lady, she was pretty strong.

I had a feeling in my gut that she would be back later for another conversation.

I began to really develop a hate for Kairouseki too when she left. I felt drained of all my energy and I couldn't rescue myself. I was even starting to doubt my friends were coming for me, of course even I didn't know where I was.

I tapped my foot to the beat of some random song that popped into my head and leaned against the wall, even if my hands were still uncomfortably positioned behind my back. I tried to focus instead of letting my brain wander like it had been doing, and looked across the hallway that probably led to the exit.

There was another jail cell across from mine, and earlier I had thought it to be empty, but now that I looked a little closer, and squinted a little, I could make out the form of another person.

I didn't call out to them, they knew I was here and if they wanted to talk to me they would have already. I was just curious about who it was. Perhaps a villager who committed a crime.

I shifted my hands a little and managed to get them in a position were I could massage my aching cheek a little. I continued to stare into the gloomy darkness of the other cell, and my mind went blank once again. Time goes by very slowly when you're a captive.

* * *

**A Few Days Before...**

Mizuko sat up slowly, rubbing her sore head. *Wait, Sore head? When did that happen?* She questioned.

She looked to her sides and saw Masa and Ace were sleeping peacefully, so she decided to change that.

"Hey, wake the hell up you two!" Mizuko said, the dull pain in her head annoying her.

Masa quickly shot up, he was a light sleeper unfortunately. Ace was still sleeping so Mizuko ignored him for now.

"What happened?" Masa groggily yawned out this phrase the same time Misuko asked.

They stared at each other for a second before saying at the same time, "So you don't know? Useless..."

They looked over to where Ace was still sleeping, and Mizuko, knowing he would wake up on his own, stood up to examine their surroundings.

They were on another white sanded beach, and Mizuko let out an exclaim of excitement and glee when she saw their boat washed up onto the shore of it.

She hauled herself up over the edge of it and ran below deck into their room. She hugged her scythe after picking it up off the floor where it had been discarded this whole time.

Mizuko was satisfied with the fact that their boat was still okay and that they could now leave the island at any time they chose, so she went back up onto the deck and looked over near the forest where Masa was trying to shake awake Ace. His attempts to no avail because Ace still wasn't waking up yet.

"Masa, everything is still all safe on the boat!" Mizuko called as She hopped back over the edge, but something glinting in the sun caught her eye and she turned once more to see a dagger stabbed into the ship. It's blade was golden with silver patterns swirling up the sides, somehow it gave of an ominous feeling.

Mizuko inspected it closer and saw it was holding up a scrap of paper. She removed the dagger and read the obviously hurriedly scribbled out words.

'_We gave you the information you asked for, in return we took a payment from you_.'

*Payment? What payment?* Mizuko thought to herself. She flipped the scrap over and read a second note saying they had taken Lupus back, and something clicked.

*If they were taking Lupus back it must have been that village, and the information we needed was the whereabouts of our boat... So what is this payment that they took?* Mizuko thought.

*Its not like we have any treasure, I think...* Her thought trailed off as she heard an obnoxiously loud yawn and turned to see Ace was finally waking up.

Memories flooded back into Mizuko's mind however. She remembered when they were at that old lady's house they were trying to extract information from her, but once they mentioned Lupus was a captive, everything went black.

"Ace!" She called, jogging over to him, and began to fill him in on what happened, Masa listening too.

They were studying the scrap of paper when Ace spotted the dagger Mizuko still held. "Where did you get that dagger from?" He asked her.

She looked down at it for a second, bright gold shining into her eyes. "It was being used to hold up that note."

Ace took it from her hands and traced the swirling patterns. He seemed lost in thought for a minute, before standing up, a serious expression on his face.

"They took Luna."

* * *

I now sported another large bruise on my ribcage and a few various cuts on my arms. It had only been a few hours since I had notice the person across from me. The old lady had returned for another conversation, and when she left, let her guards treat me roughly as I was dragged to another cell, and chained up more uncomfortably than before. My hands hung above me head as I was sitting up against the wall.

I was already getting tired of this, *Ace, where are you?* I thought once more before gluing my eyes to the flickering torch that was attached to the wall of the hallway opposite my cell. The flames sometimes burning down low only to return up again to it's original size.

I knew I shouldn't depend on someone coming to rescue me, I had memories to prove that. So I let myself be consumed by sleep after deciding the next time Julie came into my cell, I would have to take advantage of that.

* * *

**A/N: Did I spell Kairouseki right? I don't know, please leave a review to tell me what ya think!**


	9. Chapter Nine

**Moonlight**

**Chapter Nine-On The Way**

I smirked, almost unnoticeably when Julie double over coughing, a guard rushing into my cell to help her.

Just a few seconds ago I landed a kick right in her gut, that's what she got for coming too close. I still had no plan to escape however.

Julie looked at me angrily and muttered, "Y-you... Alright it's about time we cleared something up anyways..."

She stood up unsteadily and put her hand to her face, I almost gasped just for a dramatic effect when she seemingly pulled off a mask she had been wearing the whole time, and took off a grey haired wig to shake out her short brown hair. Surprisingly she only looked a little older than me.

I should've seen this coming though, she was too strong for someone so old. Now it was her turn to smirk as she believed she had shocked me into silence.

"I hate annoying people like you." She stated in a snobby teenage girl voice, while the guard worriedly told her she shouldn't have revealed her secret.

She shoved him away and turned back to me, "I have to dress like this to earn some respect as the village's leader, but I wanted you to know that I am not so old I can't fight." She said, coming close enough that I could feel her hot breath on my face.

I shoved her away with my foot again and yanked on my cuffs, a desperate attempt to escape, but as she stumbled back, she lashed out too and kicked my face for revenge.

"I'd rather not fight you in my unfair state." I said, spitting out some blood.

"You don't get to choose." She stuck her tongue out at me and exited the cell.

I could almost hear her muttering as she left, "And all I wanted was someone to talk to who could tell me about the outside world..." but I wasn't really listening.

The guard sent one last final glare at me before closing the jail cell's door once more and leaving me in utter silence again.

* * *

Mizuko jogged through the forest again, Ace in the lead as the group of three tried to make their way back to the village, of course if they had no distractions it should only take the day to get back. For now they abandoned the boat in hopes that it would remain safe.

She was suddenly reminded, from the feeling of being watched, when she had first woken up after the shipwreck.

When she had regained consciousness after being shipwrecked she had ended up in the forest rather than the beach strangely enough. She felt that she was being watched and was correct when after a bunch of rabbits came out to cuddle her from all sides.

There were all kinds ranging from tiny bunnies to rabbits that were almost the size of her.

She was surprised that a bunch of wild rabbits had ventured over to her though, usually they would run away.

She cuddled them back for awhile too before trying to stand up to maybe find some water to soothe her parched throat, but the rabbits held her back and had a sense of urgency written in their eyes.

Mizuko crouched down next to them again, "What's the matter guys?" She asked.

The rabbits wanted her to follow them it seemed so she did, and was led to a small cliff face.

The rabbits excitedly hopped into a large, leafy plant and She followed. It was a little hard to get through the leafy exterior, but Mizuko found on the inside it actually looked like some sort of rather big den, and there was someone sitting in it.

They were a girl, she had white hair pulled into a side braid with a few flowers poked into it, she also had quite a few rabbits sitting in her lap that she was stroking.

The rabbits who led her here ran over to the girl, and she praised them before Mizuko spoke up.

"Um... I'm not sure why I'm here, but..." She trailed off.

The other girl stuck out her hand as if asking for a handshake and introduced herself, "My name is Lepus, and I love rabbits, obviously." Lepus smiled a little. Her voice was somewhat childish, but she still looked at least like a teenager.

Mizuko hesitantly shook her hand, "Hello, I'm Mizuko and, um, where exactly am I?" She asked, getting to the point.

This was where Lepus began to explain various things about the island that Ace, Luna, and Masa had learned later on.

Mizuko was recalling Lepus bringing her to the village after telling her something surprising to hear, when she was snapped out of her thoughts by the sound of a twig snapping.

The trio suddenly stopped and their suspicions of being followed we're correct as they realized they were surrounded.

Of course, it was a bunch more of another type of animals, they had probably ended up in Ursa's territory because a bunch of menacing bears were now approaching them.

"Shit I'm tired of fighting..." Masa muttered as Ace got into a battle stance and prepared to use his Devil Fruit abilities.

"Wait." A deep yet feminine voice came from their sides, the bears halting.

She stepped forward, stroking one of the bears' heads and allowing Mizuko to get a better look at her.

The most plainly obvious thing about her was the tattoo of a bear on her collarbone, visible because of her low cut tank top. Her dark brown her was so long it trailed on the grassy ground, probably picking up twigs and dirt. There was also a scar across the tattoo of the bear.

"Are you Ursa?" Ace asked, still ready for a battle if necessary.

"Yes I am." She curtly replied, looking at the ragged group. "What are you doing here?" She continued.

"We're making our way to the village." Mizuko answered.

She almost swore she saw a slight twitch on Ursa's face before it returned to normal. "Before that, why not come with me? I can give you guys some food and shelter for the night." Ursa suggested.

Mizuko looked at the sky and saw the sun was actually beginning to set and it would soon be nighttime.

Mizuko, Masa and Ace probably were all thinking the same thing, *How did it get so late already?*

Ursa beckoned with her hand to follow so they did. They were led through the forest as they headed for their next destination. Golden rays of light reflected off the many small ponds that seemed to be in Ursa's territory

"Here we are." Ursa announced shortly (for a change) as they stopped next to another pond. It looked like Ursa was a little bit of an architect herself because the group of four soon were entering a nice house. It was weird compared to Lupus' caves or Lepus' shrubs.

Ursa kicked at a pine cone that was lying on the wooden floor and a small polar bear cub came gallivanting over from some hiding place to play with it.

"You know, polar bears are pretty scarce around here." Ursa said absentmindedly before sitting down on some sort of wooden couch. Everything in the house looked to be made out of wood.

Ursa abruptly stood up again, "Have a seat," she said and went over to a small looking kitchen, "I'll make something to eat if you want."

"After this I need to ask you guys some stuff." Ursa added before turning her attention away.


End file.
